By Jim Shamp, News & Publications Editor
For 35 of The Research Triangle Park’s 50 years, an eclectic group from throughout the Triangle area has been drawn together like motorcycle enthusiasts or bird watchers, to share their passion – science and its possibilities for social and economic good.
It’s called the Triangle Area Research Directors Council (TARDC, pronounced TAR-dack), though a “research director” title on a business card isn’t required to gain entry into TARDC or its meetings. Membership does require sponsorship and approval by other members, but it has evolved over the decades to include research support leaders such as those involved in science-related economic development and venture capital.
The meetings usually involve 40 to 50 people gathering the third Tuesday of each month through the academic year at RTP headquarters on Davis Drive. They feature a wide range of topics, presented by speakers whose names are already known by most in the audience who read newspapers, journals or tune in to broadcast media.
For example, speakers on tap for the rest of this season include:
- Holden Thorp, Ph.D., chancellor of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, will provide the March 17 program.
- On April 21 the group will hear from Miguel Nicolelis, Ph.D., Duke University professor of neurobiology, biomedical engineering and psychological and brain sciences and co-director of Duke’s Center for Neuroengineering.
- Capping the season’s programming will be a May 19 presentation from Oliver Smithies, Ph.D., the ever-popular UNC Nobel laureate.
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| Thorp |
North Carolina Biotechnology Center employees have long been active in the organization, including Shobha Parthasarathi, Ph.D., technology development director, who sits on the TARDC steering committee. Charles Hamner, Ph.D., former president of the Biotechnology Center, served as TARDC chairman during the 1990-91 season.
Organizational support comes from the Research Triangle Foundation, whose Cara Rousseau, The Research Triangle Park director of corporate strategy, serves as secretary/treasurer of TARDC.
TARDC was founded in 1974 by George Herbert, then-president of RTI International, as a forum for leaders of local research organizations and universities to escape the “silos” of scientific endeavor that kept them separated by acres of woods and corporate cafeterias throughout RTP. Herbert and colleagues were hungry to rub elbows with one another and with scientific diversity.
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| Oberhardt |
Since then, representatives of North Carolina State University, UNC and North Carolina Central University have chaired the group, as have other scientists from RTI International, the EPA, Family Health International and other organizations, corporations and institutions.
Initially most members were academic scientists or chief technology or scientific officers of RTP companies, said Rousseau. The current chairman of the group is Bruce Oberhardt, Ph.D., a consultant and president and chief scientific officer of the young Raleigh biotechnology company NanoVector.
Oberhardt has led and/or participated in several significant technological developments including the “CoaguChek” home monitoring system. The testing device enables millions of people taking the blood thinner warfarin to avoid complications from blood becoming too “thick or thin.”
“This organization is doing a great service to the local community by providing a platform for communication and networking and access to multiple disciplines with cutting-edge technology,” said Oberhardt.
“There’s a certain mystique about TARDC,” he said. “Historically, when it was started, a venue for research leaders of varying disciplines was completely absent in RTP. Scientific societies have meetings, but they don’t quite do this. They don’t cater to these individuals who, in their respective areas, are leading research efforts. But over the past 35 years TARDC has fostered a lot of exchange among these individuals that has been translated into action in their respective research programs.
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| Smithies |
“Unfortunately the full effect of this will probably never be measurable now. But had we measured it back then, we might see the direct value of the interactions of TARDAC. Now we’re starting to archive the talks and Q&A sessions on video, going forward, so in the future we’ll be able to some day look back at, say, Miguel Nicolelis’ session, and see something that’s commonplace in, say, 2020, was newly discussed in 2009.”
It began as an “organizations organization,” said Oberhardt, with a focus on networking. “If you were with an RTP company you’d go as your company’s rep. If you left that company you were no longer a member. At some point it was decided to invite outside speakers, which is when it became more of a showcase. And it made a strategic shift to become a ‘people organization’ specifically targeting high-impact research that improves quality of life or stimulates economic growth. Again, as an example, what Nicolelis is doing could have a tremendous impact for, say, people who don’t have limbs. His work may some day help us take direct brain activity and apply it (through robotics) to people who don’t have limbs.”
Oberhardt said another important facet of TARDC is that some of the most useful idea exchanges occur at the lunch tables, independent of the speaker. “It has played a unique role in the development of the RTP area, this exchange of awareness in factors that can be transferred among research leaders whose commonality is that they’re shaping research. People in a lunch-table discussion with someone in an entirely different area of research can go back to their labs and apply an idea to their own situation.”
TARDC’s annual membership dues are $275, which includes all meeting meals for the season. Non-members can participate for $35 per meeting.
More information about TARDC is available at www.tardc.org or e-mail tardc@rtp.org.